While the kid is away...the parents will play:)

Layla has been with her grandparents in TN since Thursday. I am amazed at how simple everyday task are without an almost 2 year old tagging along. Lucas and I haven't done anything super exciting since she has been away. Friday, he only worked half a day and we just went out for lunch, ran errands and he surprised me with a stop for ice cream:) Last night we went to dinner with some friends who were also kidless. This morning I didn't get out of bed until 10am! Needless to say we are enjoying each others company while doing a bunch of nothing.

When Layla is here with us, I am always thinking of life in the here and now. When she is away I tend to get pretty sentimental about how quickly she is growing up. The reality is, our job as parents is to teach and train them to be independent of us. That is tough on a momma's heart sometimes to think about as our future, when all I want to do it keep her tucked under my wing as close as possible. In saying that, it sure does bring my heart joy to hear how she is well behaved, mannerly, and others think she as cute as I do when she is not with me. I think it also gives her a chance to put in practice the values her daddy and I are trying to teach her.

Although we miss her a ton when she is gone, it is definitely healthy for our family for us to be apart. Lucas and I practice loving life with just the 2 of us and Layla gets to learn to love life independent of us. It is hard to imagine what life was like before we became parents. When we were married before kids I never viewed our house as quiet but now that we have Layla, when she is gone there is definitely a void.

We are looking forward to having her back home but until then we will stay up late, sleep in, eat out for meals, and watch a movie in the middle of the day:)

On the way to TN!

Granna had to buy her this jacket because I did not pack enough warm clothes...ooops!

Granna & Papa Visit!

We had some special visitors this week. Lucas's parents and brother and sister came to visit for a few days. Yesterday we went downtown and had quick lunch at the CNN center and then went to the Coca-Cola museum for a tour. The weather was beautiful and we rode Marta to downtown and back since Abbey and Grant had not done that before. Layla loved the museum. Luckily it wasn't crowded so we let her out of her stroller and she was so happy to walk freely. They had a human dressed as a polar bear like the one on the commercials. It was about 7ft tall when it stood and Layla was very interested. We waited in line for a photo op and she could not wait for our turn. I thought for sure she would get scared, but we took a picture with it, she hugged it, gave it a fist bump and a high five. Maybe a trip to Disney is in our near future?? Unfortunately the pic of us got accidentally deleted from our camera but I am going to get one from the Coke website. Another part of the theater was a 4D movie where the chairs moved and they shot water and blew air at us. Layla only lasted maybe 5 mins and then she went out with Lucas. I think the screaming scared her the most. To end our museum tour, they give you a cup and you can taste the different flavors of coke they make all over the world. This was very cool and of course Layla loved trying all the sugar filled drinks. She was literally bouncing off of things afterwards. No trip would be complete without a gift from the gift shop. Granna bought Layla a stuffed polar bear which she loved. Lucas and I added to our ornament collection with a coke can ornament. After the museum, we had dinner at Fox Bros which is always yummy.

Granna and Papa left this morning and took Layla with them! She will be spending the weekend in TN and I will go pick her up Monday. I already don't know what to do with myself. I keep thinking she is asleep upstairs. Lucas and I are looking forward to spending some time in Atlanta with some friends and no kids this weekend, and I know Layla won't have time to miss us!

Here are some pics from yesterday!

Granna and Layla waiting on Marta

Walking through downtown..backwards because it was windy.

My mini me:)

YAY for Coca-Cola!

Aunt Abbey!

Testing the coke. Definitely the most she has had in her lifetime.

Tried to get a family pic but she was full of sugar and tired of pics. Oh Well!

I WILL Win!

Layla and I are in a nap battle and I will most definitely win!! My perfect little sleeper has suddenly decided that she is too big for naps! But I am here to gently inform her that she still has plenty of napping years ahead. She is still very consistent with her 12 hours of sleep at night. Since the time change we are doing 8p-8a. The most I have gotten out of her for a nap the past week or so is about an hour. After reviewing my Babywise "rules" I have come to realize that this is probably all my fault. Up until this point I have been pretty rigid with our schedule: lunch at 12, nap at 1 with maybe 1 or 2 exceptions a week. Another method that we used in sleep training was "crying it out" and I have recently been more lenient in this area because of Lucas working from home. Before now, Layla was in her crib from 1-3 whether she woke up 15-30 mins early or not.

Today I didn't put her to bed until 2:30 because she was playing pretty well and I was getting a few things done. She slept for a total of 20 minutes so I don't even need to tell you how our evening was: WHINEY. Layla is definitely a baby who THRIVES with a routine and I have messed her up.

So to say all this, tomorrow is a new day and nap time sleep REtraining will begin at 1pm EST. :) I will let all of you know how it goes in a couple of days. Wish me luck and say a prayer for Layla!

Lake Day in March!

Natalie and Chris bought a ski boat and that was all it took for us to be on the lake this early in the year. Even though it is March, it got above 80 today and was a perfect day to be on the water. We all got a little sun, except for Layla with her SPF 50:) The water was about 60 degrees (FREEZING), but that did not stop Lucas and Chris from playing with their new toys. We were out there about 6 hours and all had a great time relaxing. Layla managed to catch a small (very small) catnap but was still content and mostly happy. I have to add that during her nap, she laid on the seat with her head in my lap instead of in my arms. Our little girl is really not a baby anymore:(. It was great day and I am sure there will be many, many more to come. I hope you all had a great Saturday as well!

Excited about the lake before leaving this morning. A~Natalie bought her this cute "cover up".

Love these two!

This pic doesn't do justice how red his body was from the cold water.

Boys will be Boys....Even in their late 20s.

Before someone calls child services: I took her life jacket off for about 2 mins while the boat was sitting still. Had to get some shots of her cute swim suit! (Also from A~Nat)

These are the things that make me smile:)

We had some of our favorite neighbors over tonight to cook out, enjoy the weather (and our new patio set) watch the kids play, and throw some darts. We all headed out to the garage to watch the guys to throw darts. Lucas then dug out his drum set that hasn't been assembled in about 4 years for no other reason other than we haven't had the space for it. If you know my husband, you know that he loves to listen too and play music...especially the drums. What I love about this picture is that it is quite obvious that Layla shows the same kind of love. She played for about 15 minutes and was just laughing the whole time. You can barely see it because it is moving so fast, but she does have a drum stick in her hand. I definitely see drumming with daddy becoming a popular past time for our little girl.

Nothing makes my heart happier than watching these two smile:)

Happy Friday everyone! Believe it or not we will be spending tomorrow on the lake. Looking forward to a relaxing day with beautiful weather and some more of our favorite people!

Projectile Vomiting and Couponing

Last night I signed up to attend a coupon seminar through the website Southernsavers.com. What a great way to spend St. Patty's day huh? Actually, I had even forgot that it was St. Patricks Day and didn't even dress Layla or I in any green which added more laps to run and more push ups for me at Stroller Strides. Oh well, I probably needed it.

The afternoon went on as usual until Layla only slept about 45 minutes. When I got her out of bed she was kinda whiney and clingy but we then went to the park with a neighbor and she ran around like a wild child. After we got home, Lucas and Layla went to Chik Fila while I was getting ready for the seminar. When they pulled into the driveway, I met them on the front porch and Layla's clothes were wet from her neck to feet. Uh Oh. Lucas said, "she threw up everywhere". She hadn't eaten much that day by choice so it was mainly liquid but definitely made some distance in the car. She was also burning up with a fever. So we gave her some Motrin and I left her with daddy. She eventually broke her fever and chowed down on some Chik Fila then went to bed and slept all night. I guess our next round of teething has arrived. Looks like the bottom left cuspid is going to be the next to break through. Lucas's mom said that his brother and sister both threw up every time they cut teeth so maybe it's in her genes.

Other than waking with a low grade fever, Layla has been very happy today. I actually didn't put her down for her nap until 3 because she was having such a good time playing independently. Of all the hours that I spend with Layla, I missed her first real "throw up" and I have to admit I was kind of sad about it! I guess as a momma we feel like we should be the ones to comfort them when they are sick and their bodies are doing things that scare them:) I am sure I will have many more opportunities in life to share these moments, probably sooner rather than later when the right cuspid decides to make his appearance.

Beautiful Weather and Daylight Savings time

Wow! What a great weekend we had! It began Friday afternoon with a family trip to Ikea. We went to look at their patio furniture and although we did not buy anything, a trip there is always an adventure! We woke up Saturday morning to sunshine and what was expected to be 70 degree weather! I decided enough was enough, I was tired of looking, we had to buy a table for our deck so we can sit outside to eat. So we finally decided on one at Lowes. I will post pics as soon as I get done "decorating" the deck. We spent every meal at home outside with music. Layla loves it and so do Lucas and I :) After a nap we ventured to the park and played for about an hour while Lucas was with some friends watching Bama play in the SEC tournament. We had a great time but unfortunately Bama lost, putting them out of the tournament. Saturday night, we walked to our neighbors and had a HUGE cookout. They had outside ping pong, which was a hit with Lucas. Layla had a blast playing with all the kids and I had a great time getting to know some great people in our neighborhood. Plus the food was excellent. With the time change, Layla finally crashed out about 9:15pm, so we decided that the usual early service at church was probably not an option. As expected, Layla slept her 12 hours and we went to the 11pm service. We are still so thankful that God led us to Buckhead Church. We look forward to every Sunday and it is a perfect church to raise our family in. Then Sunday afternoon, Lucas played softball with the neighborhood team. They won! Thankfully, the spring team is so far proving themselves much better than the fall team. Layla LOVES watching her daddy play softball! Afterwards we all headed to a local pub for some dinner with the team. We ended the evening with our walk home to work off all of the food we ate.:)

It was a perfect weekend with my 2 favorite people and many others who I am growing fondly of very quickly. Hope your weekend was enjoyable and relaxing as well. I know I am worn out and will be hitting the sack very soon. I will leave you with a couple pics of Layla:)

Yay for Sunshine!

Model Pose

Layla would not leave the house without her purse. This is her and Lena playing with her necklaces at the cookout.

Above: Who knew pebbles could be so much fun??

Below: Layla and her BFF Kyson at the ballfield.

Playing in the rain!

Weather in Atlanta this week has been rather blah, as I think it is all over the southeast. We have spent the last day and a half reading books and dancing to Madonna but by this evening we were all in need of some fresh air. So, I loaded up the BOB with towels and all 3 of us headed to the playground. When we got in sight of it, Layla started yelling "play!, play!". She was so excited. We were the only ones out there but after a few trips down the slides, they were pretty dry but Layla sure wasn't and she didn't care a bit! We played for about an hour and then headed home for a warm bath! Perfect end to the day.

I also must mention that Layla is on a raisin kick. Can you eat too many raisins?? She also is loving some pancakes. I made few little ones and froze them. Pancakes is what she wants every morning for breakfast. She can also say the words "raisins" and "pancakes" with good clarity. Her vocabulary is improving daily and I am still waiting for her to speak her first sentence.

Looking forward to a sunny day tomorrow! We are in the process of buying furniture for our front and back porches. Why is everything so expensive? We are hoping to spend some time out there when Lucas's parents visit for a few days in a couple weeks!
Happy hump day everyone!

20 Months in Pictures

Celebrating Kyson's First Birthday!

Using Mom's eyeliner as lipstick and wearing her bib as a "necklace"

Coloring on her Valentine card from Great Granddad

Girl's day at the Scott Antique Market

Riding in her new BOB to the park!

Warm weather means ICE CREAM!

First black eye. Ran into swing at the playground!

Pigtails!

With warmer weather comes the out of control curls!!

Making friends on the playground...typical Layla look :)

Peek a Boo!

Kicked back relaxing...She always takes the cushion off.

Making friends at story time

Swinging with Kyson! She always lies forward when she is swinging...maybe it feels riskier??

20 Months with Layla has been a blast! We spent the majority of the time outdoors enjoying the early spring in Atlanta. What a fun age. We sure do love this kid:)